@alex Combat tip for you. When using your powers such as Warp centre the reticule over the enemy you want to hit and wait for the red brackets to show around the enemy. Once you've got the brackets in place you can pull the reticule away a short distance in any direction but the red brackets will remain on the enemy. If you do this the Warp ball will initially fly toward the reticule but then arc toward the enemy. This way you can hit enemies behind cover. This comes in very handy in hairy combat situations.
OK I know this is super late to do this but to explain the whole Karaoke Duck thing... The character in the game is actually a kappa (not a duck even though it does look kinda like one) just like the critter outside the Kamurocho drug store. The biggest karaoke machine business in Japan has a parrot mascot that is coloured the same as the Karaoke Duck/Kappa in this game. Just riffing on something everyone in Japan would know. You see them everywhere, including all the small towns because most likely the local snack (read: bar) has one of their machines.
For the kappa sitting outside the drugstore... most independent drugstores in Japan have a little elephant statue outside which is the mascot of a drug company. They come in various colours for the different medicines the company produces if I remember. Kinda like old time general stores in the US had cigar Indians standing out front. Just something you see every day while you're out and about. The thing it is holding is a cucumber (I love the pickle reference though after last weeks Beastcast). In the really old stories kappa were scary as hell and would grab kids who played on the banks of rivers. Basically a boogey-man story to get kids to be careful when they were playing by the river. That morphed over time into kappa loving to eat kids toes. In more modern times the story changed into kappa loving to eat cucumbers. The only connection I ever heard regarding the change to cucumbers was that some smaller Japanese cucumbers kinda look like they are toe shaped but I dunno about that. Now back to watching the show...
Oh and I REALLY hope the gang continues with this series. Listening to them talk about all the Japanese weirdness really reminds me of my first couple of years there when everything was utterly baffling and wonderful.
So about Makoto walking behind Majima... yeah, my wife, who is Japanese, does that as well. I know it is in many ways a cultural thing but it drives me absolutely nuts.
I think when the Pizza-La guy showed up at the end of the pizza side story Alex said something along the lines of, "What is this, a commercial?" Yup. Pizza-La is a real pizza delivery chain in Japan and they, along with several other companies, paid to have their businesses put into the game. Don Quixote is the same. Any company that didn't pay but kinda needs to be in the game for realism purposes gets a parody version.
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